Why does Twitter court China for ads when it’s blocked in China?

Despite being blocked in China, Twitter Inc. [fortune-stock symbol=”TWTR”] is courting Chinese companies to buy advertising space on its service used by more than 300 million people elsewhere in the world.

This week, the popular microblog platform has made presentations to prospective Chinese clients in Shanghai on the sidelines of the inaugural Consumer Electronics Show Asia.

“It’s not a coincidence that we are here now,” Peter Greenberger, director of sales for emerging markets at Twitter, told Reuters on Tuesday.

“This seems to be a moment in time where Chinese corporations really feel the urge to be global and in fact, there’s even a mandate from the government saying ‘go global’, which is exciting.”